Worship Leaders

Know Your People

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If you would have asked me ten years ago if relationships were important within the role of leading worship I would have said, ‘yes.’ But what I did not understand was the fundamental connection between leading worship and being in relationship with the people you serve. If we see the role of leading worship as primarily musical, relationships will be secondary. If we see the role of leading worship as primarily pastoral, shepherding the people of God, then relationships become inextricably linked to the responsibility of leading worship. If you, like me, struggle to understand the value of relationships to your role as a worship leader, here are some of the things I have learned over the years:

We need relationships to be reminded that we are sheep before shepherds. We must remember before we have a role, exercise any gifts, walk in a God-given calling, we are sheep. When we intentionally create distance by things like staying backstage, being disengaged during the sermon, or staying out of the room our presence communicates what we think is valuable in significant and subtle ways. We too are sheep needing the voice of our shepherd.

Relationship informs the way that we serve because discipleship is rooted in relationship. We are not people-directed, but Holy Spirit led, but knowing the stories, struggles, and experiences of those we lead in song should shape the way we pray, prepare and point them to Jesus. As leaders of sung corporate worship, I believe that we are making disciples through our liturgy, song choice, and leadership on a Sunday morning. But true disciple-makers are those that make disciples as they go, not just when they are wearing the vocation/volunteer hat as a worship leader.

Relationships help us see the individual, not just a crowd. Standing in front of 20 people or 2,000 there is a temptation to see a crowd rather than the individual. But as we begin to enter into personal relationships with people in our church, it adds perspective to the crowd. We can begin to see the individual - made in the image of God, completely loved, completely known, as we stand before the crowd.

What are you learning about relationships and leading worship?

Choosing New Songs

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Growing up, my mom had a subscription to a worship resource that regularly mailed physical CDs which included a variety of different worship songs. For many worship leaders, this was the primary way they learned of new songs for the corporate gathering. How things have changed over the past twenty years! Social media, radio, YouTube, conferences, and an industry consisting of writers, publishers, promoters and worship leaders who are seeking to put more and more songs into the hands of the local church - we are not lacking in resources.

But access and quantity does not always me quality. I am convinced with the many resources we have easily available, we should not settle for good songs but introduce only the best songs for our people. Best is relative, and I mean it as such. Introducing new songs to your local congregation has much less to do with the best songs rising to the top of CCLI or radio charts, but what needs to be on the hearts, minds and in the mouths of your people. These are the best songs of which I write.

A handful of questions I ask myself or others when considering new songs to introduce in the corporate gathering:

Does this align with our church theologically? Is this bringing clarity or confusion to who God is, what He has done, and who we are as His people? Can I trace the lyrics and concepts of the songs Scripturally?

Could I hear our people singing this? Each local church is made up a unique mix of people, will this particular song - in style, melody, and lyrical content - be the right fit for those I serve?

Is this what we need to be singing right now? Some songs need to be earmarked for future use, but maybe not in a particular season of the Church. Being aware of the larger story, and movement of the Spirit in your church will help you to be Spirit-led in discerning the right time to introduce a song to the congregation.

Is this song filling a gap in our inventory? Will this song provide a new facet to consider the heart and character of God? What other content and topics do we need to consider for whole life discipleship through our song choice?

Could I hear our team leading this song? No matter how talented the team, or high-end your production, if you are not the band on the recording, you will not sound like the band on the recording. Often, when you strip away the original production and the crowds of people singing in a stadium, many songs can struggle to stand on their own with just a voice and a single instrument.

Choose wisely, choose well, choose the best songs for your people.

Introducing New Songs

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‘Show me a church’s songs and I’ll show you their theology.’ - Gordon Fee

Songs are an essential component of what we do as sung corporate worship leaders. They instruct and exhort, give us language to understand and articulate the heart and character of God and respond as His people. When it comes to introducing new songs, I’ll devote a future post to how to determine the kinds of songs to choose for your particular context. For today, I want to think through the mechanics of how and when to introduce new songs to your team, congregation, and in the service.

Introduce the song to your team first. Make sure the team has time to engage with the song. Showing up to a rehearsal and being given a new song with the expectation to learn it, and lead it in a matter of moments can be difficult for even the most competent musicians among us. This kind of last-minute planning does not establish healthy rhythms, culture, and trust among those you lead and serve. Back up the timeline of introducing a song, give your musicians and vocalists - a few weeks with a link to a video, the song, the lyrics, and chord charts. Sending out a song to the whole team allows them to familiarize themselves with the song even on a weekend they are not serving. But you can encourage them to ‘lead from the congregation,’ by engaging and singing along as the congregation begins to learn a new song.

Introducing to the congregation. How long does it take your people to learn a new song? How complex or accessible will this song be? A healthy rhythm for introducing songs is two to three weeks on, one off, and back on the following week. The first week is learning the new song, the next week the chorus is solidified and the verses begin to take shape in the minds and melodies of the people. Giving one week off allows the song to become familiar without feeling played to death. Do not leave too much space in between the rhythm of introducing a new song and folding it into normal rotation in your services.

Introduce in the service. Use this opportunity to shepherd your people. Instead of ‘Here’s a new one for you…,’ help people understand the heart of this song, and why you chose to bring it to your people. Placing a new song in the middle of a set is helpful because it allows the congregation to begin and end with things that will be familiar. With the production and tempo stripped back and lyrics visible to the congregation, sing through the chorus one time, then repeat the chorus inviting the people to singalong. Then start the song from the beginning.

One last thing to consider as you introduce a new song, encourage your people to join in when they are comfortable. But also encourage them to both meditate on the truth in the lyrics, read, and speak them aloud. Our words are powerful, let the truth not just fill our heads, and hearts, but our mouths, and ears as well.

Building A Set List

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There is a temptation in leading corporate sung worship to imitate form and flow without understanding intention. Too often we can believe that choosing the correct combination of songs, dynamics, and production will create the desired result. Although I do believe there are best practice principles to leading worship regardless of your particular context, these things do not follow a static formula. If your worship setlists feel more like a string of songs than intentionally shaping the morning to form the people, here are some things to consider:

Start with the Text. What is the primary text in the teaching for the weekend? What does it tell us about God? What does it tell us about mankind? How may God be calling your people to respond this weekend? What themes can you pull from the text in not only your song choice, but in the way you pray, choose Scripture, and plan musical dynamics?

Prayer. Before, during, and after - I am convinced and convicted by how easily I can default to intuition, and experience to determine elements for the gathering. In an earlier post, I wrote about three prayers of preparation, you can read that here.

Follow a framework. This is why I like the Gospel Song Liturgy, intention laid in the foundation of your liturgy when you use a framework, rather than reinventing the wheel every time you plan a service.

Consider the team. Who are the musicians and vocalists serving this weekend? How can you accentuate the strengths of those individuals and the team as a whole, and minimize weakness? Do you need to begin communicating parts or specific pieces further in advance?

This week, this month, this year. Our weekend services stand-alone, but build one on another week after week, month after month, year after year. Are you holding the bigger picture of where your people are, and where you’re leading as you plan the service this weekend?

Find the gaps. Songs don’t always communicate or give the language needed for every aspect of our time. What other aspects are needed to fully connect and ground your time? Scripture, liturgical elements like readings, prayers, confessions, silence, and response, as well as verbal transitions, can all be used to direct and focus the flow of the morning.

When your elements for the service are gathered, consider the flow of the story you are telling in your lead through the liturgy. We can inadvertently create a disconnected story when we do things like sing about the resurrection and then sing about our sin and need for a Savior. Songs, rhythm, and keys should move in a structure flowing naturally one to the next as you move the people through your setlist, the morning, and the vision of where you are headed.

Developing A Team: Without Musicians

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After high school I served a worship leader as a part of a church plant. It was new and exciting, getting to choose the songs that would make up the catalogue of our services, think through our structure and liturgy, casting vision about who we were and what our gathering would look like. The only problem? My mother and I were the only two musicians committed to serving as a part of the launch team for the church. Often people have a hard time envisioning what you are going to do until they see it. So trying to gather people and musicians before the launch was often met with, ‘sounds great, let me know when you start…’ It was the first (but not the last) time I had struggled to find other musicians to serve as we led corporate sung worship.

It can feel overwhelming simply to accomplish a weekly service when you are struggling to find Godly, gifted, and consistent musicians for your worship team. Like everything, we must start where we are: who do you have? If you are the only musicians willing and available to serve, that is still a good place to start. Here are other things to consider as you try and develop a team:

Make it a hospitable place to serve. Early communication with set lists, keys, chord charts and lyrics, and rehearsal times are essential. You have to establish a healthy, stable culture even if you’re the only team member. Showing up early and prepared, being considerate of those serving, being gracious and appreciative are small things that can make your team a more hospitable environment - a place where people would delight to serve.

Have conversations. Do you know other musicians and worship leaders in the area? Ask if anyone would be willing to help you out on a consistent basis, maybe once a month, or for a few months at a time. What seems like an obstacle to overcome could actually birth opportunity for co-laboring, partnership, and seeing the Kingdom continue to advance in your context.

Hidden musicians. I have often been surprised how many people sing or play instruments that do not put themselves forward to serve on the worship team. Maybe it is their season of life, they are already committed to a specific area of ministry within the Church, or simply because they have not been asked. Raise the question, be specific: ‘We are looking for guitar players, piano players, vocalists who can help us not only sing, but worship God through song, are there those a part of our community already that have the gifts and the desire to serve in this way?’

Pray. In one church where I served, as our team grew, one of our pastors asked me, ‘what does the team need, what do we need to pray for?’ For many months we prayed for more worship leaders, to my surprise, what God brought was not more people like myself (young guys playing guitar/piano who sang), but many gifted female leaders who could lead the band through rehearsal, and the congregation through the service, but did not play instruments.

Be creative. Pray specifically, but be attentive and aware of the ways God may be answering your prayer in a different way than you had anticipated. God answered my prayer for more worship leaders, but what a blessing to the team and the congregation I would have missed had my specific pray request required my specific answer.

If you are struggling to find Godly, consistent, and gifted musicians, take heart. I am often comforted by the reality that God does not need us to accomplish what He desires, but He chooses to use us. The worship of God does not start or stop based on our team - or lack thereof. Because of Christ, all of our broken offerings are perfected before the Father.

Well Done

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New beginnings are often accompanied by anticipation, excitement, and anxiety. We welcome 2021 from a different place than we did in 2020. Looking back a year ago, no one could have imagined what the new year would hold. Many of our most earnest plans, our prayed over desires, spirit-led goals, and personal resolutions had to be adjusted, or completely abandoned. Maybe 2021 finds you unsure of how to lead and cast vision for the team you serve. What I hope and pray for you, and for me, is that we are people who live what we have known to be true all along:

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,

    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” - Proverbs 19:21

‘Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”’ - James 4:13-15

Set goals, make plans, or dream of what could be, but live surrendered to the Lord. Open-handed, and attentive to what He wants to do in you and through you. Because our value and worth are not measured by what we accomplish, but by the ‘well done,’ already spoken to us in Christ. As Keith Green reminds us:

'The only music ministers to whom the Lord will say, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' are the ones whose lives prove what their lyrics are saying and the ones to whom music is the least important part of their life. Glorifying the only worthy One should be most important!'

Walk with God in this new year, wherever He may lead.

Assessment and Stewardship

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Assessing a team made up largely of volunteers may seem cold, formal, or too professional. These people willingly give their time, energy, and talents, shouldn’t we just let ‘em at it? Does creating some kind of expectation of excellence and growth focus our work externally when what we should really be concerned about is the heart?

As with many things we hold tensions. On one side we are commanded to play skillfully (Ps 33:3). On the other, we know that the Lord seeks true worshipers - and true worshipers live a life marked by worship (Jn 4:23, Rom 12). But I would like to suggest that these two tensions hold hands. And our responsibility as leaders of a team is to hold both tensions on behalf of those we serve.

Assessing our teams requires a shift in perspective. We can easily mistake assessment for comparison - contrasting what you see in other worship teams, and other churches, or even among the individuals serving in your team. Comparison is a perverted form of assessment. Assessing your team is about stewarding well the gifts and resources God has entrusted to your Church, your leadership, and the worship team. And as leaders, we carry the gift and responsibility of calling forth life from those we serve alongside. To name what we see. To encourage and fan the flame of beauty, goodness, and truth.

As you begin to assess the team, I suggest a grid of four categories to consider: Musical, Theological, Practical, and Leadership. These four categories help us to think holistically about the individual, not just about the way in which they fit into the team. I have a free assessment tool that gives you questions for each category, you may download the assessment tool here. And when you’re ready to move your team from assessment to actionable steps you can schedule a phone consultation with me, here.

People are not obstacles to overcome or tools to use, they are image-bearers of God, entrusted to our leadership to love, serve, and call forth life. What a sobering reality for those of us that lead teams.

Vocal Health

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We are embodied creatures. If we desire to do the work on ministry for the long haul, it will take intentionally cultivating our heart, mind, soul, and yes, even our bodies. Singing weekly, through rehearsals and services can take a toll on your voice and body if you are not pursuing healthy habits and practices as you ready your body to lead corporate sung worship. Here are a few things I have learned over the years:

Stay hydrated. Water isn’t just for times when you’re singing. You have to be regularly giving your body the hydration it needs. Coffee, alcohol, dairy, sugar, and lack of sleep all dehydrate and strain your body and voice. Drink more water than you think you need, and remember it takes at least 20 minutes for the water to hydrate your vocal cords - plan accordingly.

Know your voice. What range and keys are most comfortable for you to sing consistently? What is your vocal tone and ability? Are you trying to sing like someone else in a sound or style that your voice cannot accommodate? Familiarize yourself with your specific voice so that you can play to your strength and minimize weakness.

Warm up. It was not until after college that I began to warm up consistently every time I led worship. It can be a bit tedious, but it has made such a difference not only in my ability to sing well through rehearsal and a service but strengthen my voice overall from week to week. The program I use is called Singing Success. Downloading their app is an easy way to test to see if this program is the right fit for you. Another great resource is Jan Smith’s vocal coaching. In this video, Jan provides a warm-up (and down) routine that is simple and accessible.

Hire a vocal coach. Even the most basic vocal ability will benefit from trained professional teaching you how to stand, how to breathe, and how to care for this instrument God has built into your body.

Drink this. Whether it is seasonal allergies, or overworking my voice, I saw Jonas Myrin (songwriter, artist, and incredible vocalist) post on his Instagram years ago. What you need: Ginger, Lemon, Clove, Cinnamon Stick, Honey. How to: In a mug or glass measuring cup cut half a lemon, add 6-8 cloves, one cinnamon stick, lots of honey, and grate lots of fresh ginger. Add a cup of hot water, steep the tea for 3-4 minutes, strain into a fresh mug, and enjoy! I’ve also heard good things about Diane Sheet’s voice tea as well.

If we are to take seriously the song selection and liturgy - which we should, we should also take seriously the way we prepare our body and voices to lead God’s people in sung corporate worship. We care and serve others well when we prepare our heart, soul, mind, and body to lead people in song.

How do you care, maintain, and grow your voice?

Advent, Christmas, & Corporate Worship

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year… Unless you’re a worship leader trying to figure out how to incorporate Christmas carols into weekly services, balance people’s desires and expectations for this season, organize, plan and lead special services and events, and still prepare room for Christ in your own heart.

Truthfully, I have not always been a huge lover of Christmas Carols. It felt like an interruption to the regularly scheduled programming of worship songs and setlists. These songs were so familiar, not just to me, but to the culture as a whole - even those who have no faith background or belief. We hear them overhead in the grocery store, on commercials, and in television shows, and inescapably from our most festive friends and family. But the longer I have been leading worship, and the deeper I grow in my faith, the more I have come to treasure this Advent and Christmas season we celebrate every year. So if like me, Christmas planning can make you cringe, here are some things that have been helpful for me in recent years:

Adjust your understanding of Christmas carols. Somehow in my mind, carols occupied a different place that Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs… They were something other. But many songs (not all) which have stood the test of generations have done so for good reason - rich, dense, beautiful, poetic language, and theology. Ask the Spirit to give you fresh eyes to see these familiar lyrics anew. To sing like the words are true because they are. Sing like Christ has come and is coming again because He is.

Acknowledge expectations. Corporate sung worship brings out expectations - both spoken and unspoken - in a unique way for the gathered Church. When songs, styles and seasons carry such personal meaning and memory for people, it can further complicate an already difficult tension. Acknowledge the fact that people - yourself included - have expectations, desires, and preferences. Decide how to respond graciously regardless of the way someone has expressed their preferences. Choose to die to yourself, your preferences, and your desires as an act of worship to God and service to the people you lead.

Balance new with the familiar. Teaching brand new Christmas songs, or even retuned versions of familiar classics can be difficult given the short window of time for the Christmas and Advent season. And the fact those songs are only pulled out once a year some 45-weeks later.

Creating a setlist that incorporates new Christmas songs as a song of reflection or a Welcome and Calls to Worship, surrounding familiar carols and normal worship songs is a great way to balance the need for familiarity, and freshness at the same time.

Read the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ as you prepare for leading worship over the Christmas season. Let your heart be softened and broken open to the weight and wonder of God with us. Read the lyrics to these Christmas carols that can be so familiar in our mouths, they have lost the impact in our hearts and minds. Pray with gratitude and expectancy as we prepare to lead people not only to look back and remember the first Advent of Christ but His second Advent as well.

Celebrate, remember, respond and worship.

Running A Rehearsal

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Last week I wrote about four categories of preparation: our hearts, the music, the team, and the rehearsal. In my experience, I believe teams and leaders - at least conceptually - understand the importance of the first three categories. But teams and leaders do not invest as much time and energy into preparing for rehearsals. I think this is because we see rehearsals as a necessary evil - the purpose and point of rehearsals being exclusively musical. When we view rehearsals as only preparation for the musical aspect of our team, we miss the opportunity to disciple, grow a sense of community, cast vision, encourage and equip our team to lead and serve as worship leaders on and off the platform.

As a worship leader, I believe there are a number of ways we can prepare personally, practically, and spiritually to create a rehearsal that is more than a necessary evil:

Prepare during the week. Play through the songs, familiarize yourself with the songs, structure, and transitions. Consider the team that will be playing and leading together, think through potential dynamics, parts, and opportunities to allow others to bring their skill, creativity, and heart to the setlist.

Communicate expectations. What time does rehearsal start? Do you want musicians to memorize music? Will music be provided, or do musicians need to come prepared with their chord charts and lyrics? Are there specific parts you’d like musicians to learn? As Brene Brown says, ‘Clear is kind.’ When we communicate expectations to the team, it avoids unnecessary frustration or unmet expectations during the rehearsal and helps solidify the culture of the team and rehearsal.

Be the first to arrive. As worship leaders part of our responsibility is to host the team. Arriving before the team gives us the opportunity to ready ourselves and the space, so we are present and able to greet and engage the team as they arrive. Get yourself warmed up, set up your instrument, finalize any small details, and quiet and prepare your own heart to host the team, and lead the rehearsal.

Lead the team spiritually, not just musically. Spend time praying together, reading Scripture, talking through the song choices, and how they are connected to the sermon and the series. Lead the team through a devotional. I put together a 52-week devotional for worship leaders and teams that you can download for free, here.

Walk the team through the setlist. Talk through not only the order of the setlist but the order of the songs. Communicate your ideas for the dynamics of each song and the setlist overall. As you start each song, go over the song structure and dynamics again. Once you’ve finished, make sure that everyone feels comfortable and is clear on parts and transitions.

Save new songs for the end of the rehearsal. This gives you the opportunity to get through songs that are more familiar, without consuming all of your rehearsal time working on a new song. You can always drop a new song that needs more preparation. But if you spend your whole rehearsal trying to ready one song without getting through the entire setlist, it can leave the team and the morning feeling a bit shaky.

Musicians hold instruments. Musicians love to play, put an instrument in their hand and it takes a great deal of self-control not to play constantly. But when someone is giving direction or vocalists are trying to work through parts, or musicians are trying to confirm chord changes, everyone needs to hold their instrument and/or tongue. This is both a show of respect to the team, but also cuts down on noise and confusion, helping the rehearsal to move efficiently.

Someone needs to make the final call. Whether the structure of a song, parts, and dynamics, or decisions about what to add or cut, someone needs to make the final call. Often this is the person responsible for leading worship that morning, but it does not have to be. But it is important that the team that morning understands who has the final say, and know-how to respectfully voice opinions, and humbly defer when a final decision has been made.

Rehearsals are necessary, but they do not have to be evil. We can steward them wisely to host our team, prepare the music, ready our hearts, and worship through song - even in our preparation.

Preparing For Sunday

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Sunday happens every week whether we are ready or not. Even if you are blessed to be able to devote your vocation to leading worship, there are many details, big and small, that factor into leading and serving well each weekend.

And for those leading as volunteers, serving on a rotation, or working bi-vocationally on staff, finding regular rhythms of preparation are essential. Regular rhythms will keep you from feeling scattered or forgetting necessary details, and serve your team well as you seek to lead God’s people together.

Here are four rhythms to consider:

PREPARING YOUR HEART

How has reading and meditating on Scripture this week prepared you to lead and serve? Are you communing with the One to whom you desire to point through your songs and service this weekend? We cannot lead people where we have not been. Spending time playing, singing, praying through the songs can provide some space not just for musical preparation but heart preparation as well.

PREPARING THE MUSIC

This is an obvious need, but should not be the singular focus or final extent of our preparation. Planning a liturgy, choosing songs, song structure, choosing keys, and considering musical accompaniment all contribute to leading and serving well in our preparation and during the service.

PREPARING THE TEAM

In a similar sense there are both practical and spiritual details to consider when preparing the team. Scheduling and communicating with musicians, providing music, lyrics and recordings, all enable musicians to prepare themselves musically. As leaders we also have a responsibility to disciple our team in nuanced ways - like song choice, the flow of the service, and the sermon series. But also in more traditional ways - like knowing your team outside of a shared common task of serving, praying for them, encouraging them, challenging and equipping them, and walking together.

PREPARING FOR REHEARSAL

I will spend more time on this specific aspect of preparation next week. For good or for ill, often the rehearsal can set the tone for the morning with the team. Making sure sound and lyrics are ready for the service, and you have a plan for your time with the team will go along way in shaping the culture of the rehearsal and the team.

To avoid any details slipping through the cracks, I created a checklist that I use when I am leading worship. You can download my checklist for free, here.